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AgencyUK has used the following skills/services in the project.
Preparing CarShop for the emerging online self serving car buyer.
CarShop needed to navigate a period of accelerated growth, heading towards a national rollout. We partnered with them to provide actionable, strategic brand insights and create a new brand proposition to appeal to the ever more digitally savvy car buyer.
Sytner is the largest car retail group in the UK. They established their car supermarket division in 2018 when they bought CarShop and The Car People, and teamed up with us because they wanted to become a national market leader. It was important they understood more about the strengths of each brand and establish which would perform best in the future, with the evolving needs of their customers in mind.
First up, in partnership with Wright Research, we conducted some essential qualitative and quantitative brand research. We interviewed over 200 staff and 680 potential in-market customers. Then, we illustrated the extensive results using our brand health methodology, which helped us identify their meaningful difference. The scope of our research covered everything from staff and customer perceptions, to the strength of brand assets, customer experience and media reach. Plus the penetration of both brands in their respective geographic store locations and much, much more.
Following this research, we carefully distilled our findings into a clear and actionable strategic brand recommendation. As a result, CarShop’s new proposition advocated delivering ‘simplicity at every touchpoint’, which acted as a guiding light for their entire digital transformation strategy. Crucially, we helped them shape their brand in line with the seamless customer experience that audiences have grown to expect — even with complex purchases like cars.
We went on to evolve CarShop’s brand identity and to reflect their new strategy. A subtle, more muted colour palette, clean lines and a refreshed tone of voice helped them feel much more modern and aspirational. However, we were careful to ensure that it still retained the recognition they already had from existing bricks and mortar customers. We also used this evolved brand identity and in-depth insights gleaned from the brand research to evolve the retail customer flow and in store experience at their Swindon test store.
This is all just the beginning, though. We’re partnering with CarShop as they roll out their new brand proposition, launch their new stores and deliver a seamless customer experience. One thing’s for sure though, they’re definitely on the road to becoming a leading nationwide car retailer.
